On Tuesday, October 11th, I went to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Accessibility Forum with Founder Mark Barlet and Senior Gaming AT Specialist Jessie Hall as AbleGamers’ 2016 Fellow to run an AbleGamers booth and give a presentation on the real reason why game accessibility matters and gamification. It was a beautiful fall day in Bethesda, Maryland, and the colors of the leaves reflected the diversity of industry representatives working together towards accessibility.

When we arrived to set up our booth, I was impressed with how many different industries were represented including multiple branches of the government along with accessibility software developers. At the AbleGamers booth, we were demoing Pillo, a new kind of game controller that’s an actual pillow you move and hug to play games. Seeing the other vendors and attendees reactions to the controller, their enthusiasm once we explained the benefits of the technology was great to see. We also had a few more controllers at our booth like the Adroit and the Nod ring controller. Seeing all the types of switches plugged into the Adroit, the guests who stopped by immediately saw the benefit of the Xbox 360 controller in-a-box. “You can totally play Sonic with these!” I shouted when I drew their attention to a double left-right switch and a big push switch plugged into the Adroit. My favorite part about running the booth was telling everyone how cool controllers like the Pillo and Adroit and seeing the other attendee’s reaction to the AbleGamers’ mission.

Then in the afternoon, Ablegamers lead a presentation on Gamification and Game Accessibility. My main role in the presentation was to explain the benefits of Gamification and how it could be used in training and simulation technology for better accessibility and engagement. I love finding ways for gaming to benefit other industries because I’ve always felt like video games could be used effectively outside of the game industry. Reception to our presentation was positive with everyone in the room brainstorming ways gamification could be used in their industries. After our presentation, NIH was over and I must say, I loved seeing such a large passion for accessibility across industries!

On May 2nd, 2014, Robert Dal Bianco was on his way home from a showing of Captain America: Winter Soldier when, merely 50 yards from the driveway of his home, he was hit by a vehicle and passed away at the age of 32.

A few months later, on August 7th, Robert’s brother, Ronnie “Skizzle” Dal Bianco, 37, decided he would honor his late brother by holding a 24-hour stream in Robert’s name that would benefit the AbleGamers Charity. The first annual Robert Dal Bianco Memorial Live Stream featured giveaways from EA, Respawn Entertainment, and Prima Games, among others, and raised $2,200 for AbleGamers that helped provide grants to help people with disabilities enjoy gaming. Last year’s marathon, the second annual, took in $3,367 in donations, 100% of which goes directly to the AbleGamers Charity.

“I wanted to do something positive with my gaming. I want to do something fun and something that’s going to make an impact and feel good about helping others,” Ronnie said, when asked about the inspiration behind his annual marathons. “I wanted to do something for AbleGamers, and I wanted to do it in my brother’s honor, and so I did.”Read More

Halo 5, Trails Fusion, Dark Souls, Overwatch, Rocket League. This is just a small list of the games that Alec can now play thanks to his grant from AbleGamers. Alec worked with our accessibility experts to figure out the perfect controller, in his case it’s an Xbox Elite Controller.

The options presented with the controller allowed him to make adjustments and get back into gaming. Alec locks the rear triggers and upped the sensitivity, making the paddles need minimal pressure to activate. The quick reflexes and button inputs necessary for the competitive shooting of Halo 5 and the crushing difficulty of Dark Souls 3 are no match for a controller that works best to fit his needs. Alec’s list of games he wants to play is getting longer, and it’s all thanks to our donors.Read More